" magazine, white house correspondent, who has the cover story in this week's issue. john harwood, cnbc chief white house correspondent, and holding it down in new york city, msnbc political analyst karen finney. john, are you there in the spin room. as you know, the spinning begins before either candidate has spoken. we've seen both parties attempt to deflate expectations. but isn't the biggest challenge for mitt romney, not what he plans to say tonight, but how he explains what he's already said, in particular, his derision for 47% of the people in this country? >> reporter: certainly, martin, he's going to have to address that and try to diffuse that issue. look, this is an incredibly important event in the campaign. tens of millions of people will watch these two guys standing side by side. mitt romney is behind, but behind by three points. he could still win this race. he's got to figure out a way to both hurt obama, help himself, make credible arguments his economic plan will make the lives of 100% of americans better, and try to establish some connection with the american people he has
